~ folio volume 10 call for papers: deadline for submissions 1 June 2012 ~
"Wash Hands With Soap Frequently"
Reproduced with permission of NEA
volume 8, 2009
folio is an annual collection of student essays written for modules offered in the University Scholars Programme's Writing and Critical Thinking Programme.
- Buying Our Way into an Ecological Society?
“In achieving an ecological society, environmental stewardship at least holds the promise of bringing us closer to social transformation.” Janell Lim Wenting on environmental stewardship, natural spirituality, and free-market environmentalism.
- Cornering the Speaker: A Critical Evaluation of the Early Conception of Singapore's Speakers' Corner
“[It] can be argued that the architecture and basic provisos governing the use of the Corner combined to allow the effective surveying and policing of the already limited physical space allowed for free expression.” Puah You Kai on freedom of speech, political liberalisation, and OB markers.
- The Gaze in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye
“It seems clear, in The Bluest Eye, that Morrison's trenchant indictment is of both the dominant white culture that produces the gaze and shapes the values and mindsets of the African-Americans and of African-Americans who facilitate the perpetuation of the gaze.” Koh Beng Huat, Bernard on racialized ideas of beauty, social pressure, and psychological fragmentation.
- Interiorising the Power of Fear: How Singapore Conquered SARS
“In Singapore's case, fear played a large role in achieving this inculcation of social responsibility, proving that ... 'the fear of SARS’ might not necessarily 'create more problems than SARS itself.'” Wu Qingqing on social responsibility, the war against SARS, and different kinds of fear.
- The Celebrity as Repository of Meanings: Nicole Kidman's Chanel No. 5 Commercial
“[What] is fascinating about No. 5 the Film is that not only does it capitalize on Nicole Kidman's status as a celebrity in real life; it also portrays her as one.” Nur Aulia Rahman on perfume, glamour, and consumption.
- Commodification: Reducing or Restoring Tradition?
“[The] mere existence of trishaws today shows that, if not for tourists' demands for this novel way to see Singapore, trishaws may very well have vanished.” Tan Yu Lin Cheryl on modernisation, the decline of the trishaw industry, and what at first glance appear to be the mutually exclusive tendencies of commodification.
- The Utility of Waste: Vicarious Consumption and Impersonal Usefulness
“For [the] act of sexual signalling to be successful, [the consumer] merely has to purchase the socially desirable product and flaunt it in public as an indication of his ability to buy.” Chetan Cetty on fancy cars, uniformed servants, and high social status.
- Leaving Eden: The Conflict between Perfection and Humanity in The Matrix and Brasília
“[Residents actively rejected] their presented utopia and the utilisation of their own free will to create their own reality, which ironically involved re-adding flaws--such as the active re-establishment of social discrimination--before it was found satisfactory.” Davina Aw Shuqin on Brasília as a modern city, characters plugged into a matrix, and what these cases suggest about what it means to be human.
- Contributors/Process Notes
“I am now intentionally applying the skills I have learnt to create a proper structure in all my academic essays. Taking the effort to identify complications and craft an explicit motive is now a constant part of all my writing” Writers and instructors reflect on the demands--and benefits--of writing carefully structured essays.
Editor: Johan Geertsema
Editorial board (2009): Don Favareau, Johan Geertsema, Michael Maiwald, Paul Nerney, John Richardson
Last updated: 1 November 2010